Of Spells And Serpents
by rogue-scholar07
Summary: When two dimensional portals accidentally connect, the Trix Witches find themselves stuck in a time and dimension not their own and dependent on the somewhat-mysterious terrorist organization known as Cobra to help them get back home.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: Those of you who have kept up with my work know that I have come up with some pretty strange crossovers in the past. This one may be the strangest by far to some of the younger readers, but to those of us who have watched the first version (Sunbow or RAI) of the cartoons or read the accompanying comics, it makes sense. **

**So, without further ado, here is the first-ever Winx Club/G.I. Joe Crossover. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or locations presented in this work of fanfiction. They are the property of Hasbro and Rainbow/Nickelodian. No profit is gained from my writing this, aside from my readers potentially enjoying the story. **

**Of Spells and Serpents**

**1. Another Plan Gone Wrong**

Inside a secret base in an undisclosed location, a group of the most cunning, brilliant, and evil minds on the planet Earth gathered together to test their latest world domination device. They are the most elite within their organization, the High Command of the ruthless terrorist organization known as Cobra. Next to a large machine, a large, well-muscled man finished calibrating the device he created. His head was covered in a metal mask that seemed bonded to his skin, and a black bodysuit with a red boots, belt, and fur collar covered the rest of him. He is Destro, CEO of M.A.R.S. corporation and Cobra's second-highest ranking officer.

"What makes you sure this giant space-vacuum is going to work?" A much smaller man inquired, his accent betraying him as an Australian native. He had an eyepatch over his left eye and a blue helmet on his head. A blue officers' uniform covered him from the neck down. He was Major Sebastian Bludd, a mercenary now fully on Cobra's payroll.

"I have made and double-checked all calculations myself." Destro responded, a thick Scottish accent coloring his words. "This device will be able to lock on to an object across the globe and transport it to our base without the fuss caused by the MASS device."

"So it's a giant space-vacuum?" One man spoke up. He and four other gentlemen were loitering around in the corner and appeared to be making some sort of wager as to whether or not Destro's new device would work. The speaker was a rough-looking fellow with reddish-brown hair and a full beard, and mirrored sunglasses masked his eyes. A black leather motorcycle vest left a good portion of his chest exposed, but his feet and legs were covered by a pair of armored motorcycle boots and blue jeans. His companions dressed in a similar fashion. Answering to the codename Torch, he was one of a rowdy group of destructive motorcyclists known as the Dreadnoks.

"Yes, Torch." Destro grumbled, wondering why the Dreadnoks were even here. Aside from Buzzer—their blond ponytailed ring-leader whenever their boss and his siblings were away—none of the group was very smart. In fact, the Dreadnoks' inherent stupidity and destructive tendencies had cost Cobra several missions.

"I don't care what it does as long as it works, Destro." A man in a featureless metal mask and blue helmet hissed. He wore a blue uniform with various insignias revealing him to be the one in charge of the operation. He was Cobra Commander, the leader and founder of the Cobra organization.

"Of course it will work, Commander." Destro huffed, not pleased with the notions that any of his devices' malfunctions had been the cause of the group's past failures. His devices always worked.

"Destro has spent months perfecting this device." A woman with long dark hair and glasses spoke up, an unidentifiable Eastern European accent affecting her pronunciation. The black catsuit-clad Baroness was third in command and Destro's girlfriend.

"And who would know more about that than you, Baroness?" A green-eyed man with odd black facial markings taunted. Dark red hair fell to his shoulders, shadowing his face like a hood or cowl. A blue midriff-baring armored chest piece covered his upper torso, and dark red-brown pants melted into a pair of black armored boots, and a set of black gloves covered his hands. He was Zartan, master of disguise and one of Cobra's best infiltrators, with his two siblings Zandar and Zarana coming in at a tie for second and third. He was also the leader of the Dreadnoks. His dislike for the Baroness was well documented, and she returned the sentiment in spades.

"Why you…"

"If the both of you would kindly act as if you tolerate each other for the next few seconds, I will demonstrate the power of our newest device!" Destro spoke up rather loudly. Zartan and the Baroness refrained from starting a fist fight, but still glared venomously at each other. "Let us start by stealing something in China." He flipped a lever and pressed a few buttons as the machine revved to life, opening a rift in the space before it.

* * *

Meanwhile in the Realm of Magix, several dimensions and years away from the Earth inhabited by Cobra, a trio of witches tried to out-run the inter-realm magical guards pursuing them. Icy, Darcy, and Stormy, better known throughout the known realms as the Trix witches, sped through the air with a little boost from Stormy's power to control the winds.

"They're gaining on us!" Stormy, the youngest of the sister witches, cried out in alarm, her curly blue-violet hair blown in a bout thirty different directions due to both the direction of their tailwind and the speed at which the group flew. "We need to get out of here!"

"Everyone focus your energy! I'm going to create a portal ahead of us!" Darcy called out, golden eyes beginning to glow a sinister violet as she focused her Darkness energies into the formation of a portal. Stormy and Icy joined in, and a swirling black, blue, purple, and crimson vortex appeared in their flight path.

"Where will it take us?" Icy asked as they approached, the guards now nipping at their heels.

"I'm not sure, but anywhere away from here is better than where we are now!" Darcy shouted back, flying headlong into the portal with Stormy following close behind. Shaking her head, Icy used every last ounce of energy she could muster to fly into the portal. It closed behind her with a pop, barring their pursuers from following their path.

It so happened that they opened their portal at the same time Destro attempted to use his inter-dimensional vacuum portal to steal a rare artifact from China. Instead of locking in on either intended targets, the two portals connected, dumping the three most feared witches in Magix smack dab in the middle of Cobra's lair.

* * *

The entirety of Cobra High Command stared in awe as three women in their early twenties crash-landed in the middle of the testing zone, the portal machine shutting off as the landed. All three were wearing odd leather outfits.

The smallest woman, with frizzy blue-violet hair resembling a storm cloud, was clad in a burgundy leather top with an "S" sewn on in white piping. A matching leather miniskirt covered her behind, and dark tights faded into a pair of heeled ankle-boots the same burgundy as the skirt. A set of burgundy arm bracers reached up to her elbows, but left her hands free. Gray-blue eyes glanced around in shock as static electricity sparked off of her. "What the hell?" She blurted out, scrambling to her feet. "Darcy, where the hell did you send us?"

"I told you before, I don't know!" A golden-eyed brunette in a purple leather top (baring the letter "D" in a white piping), purple cropped pants, and purple stiletto shoes shot back. "But they look a hell of a lot easier to take out than those damn guards!"

The final and oldest-looking woman—a tall platinum-haired creature clad in a dark blue top with the letter "I" in silvery piping, cape, tight pants and thigh-high boots—surveyed their new surroundings while the younger two continued to bicker. Pale blue eyes seemed to be calculating something, though the Cobra staff couldn't tell just what. "Darcy, open another portal. We need to go home."

"How can I do that when I don't know where we are or how we got here?" The brunette, apparently named Darcy, exclaimed. "You know as well as I do that teleporting around strange dimensions can be dangerous! We could get stuck inside a star and burn up, and you would be the **first** to go, Icy!"

"Uh, Darcy?"

"What _now_, Stormy?" Darcy grumbled.

"Well, these strange people are all staring at us…maybe we should go now?" The younger woman asked timidly. The two older girls looked around and noticed for the first time that they were indeed attracting a lot of odd looks.

"Who are you people?" Cobra Commander demanded. "How did you manage to go through that portal?"

"You guys opened a portal?" Darcy asked slowly. Destro nodded.

"Supposedly to China, although I doubt any of you are from there."

"I've never even heard of a realm called China." Stormy frowned. "You think it's located near Obsidian?" she looked to her sister witches.

"Wait…what planet are we on?" Icy demanded, putting on her best belligerent snarl.

"The planet Earth, 1984." Destro folded his arms, not intimidated in the least.

"So not only are we stuck on the wrong planet in the wrong dimension, we're also trapped in the wrong year!" The platinum-ponytailed witch boomed at her brunette companion.

"That is NOT my fault!" Darcy hissed, an angry violet aura surrounding her. "I was aiming for somewhere in our damn dimension! They're the ones who screwed up our spell!"

"_Our_ fault?" Cobra Commander screeched with a snarl they could hear in his voice. "How is our ignorance of things in some far-flung dimension our fault?!"

"How dare you address us as equals, you insignificant rodent!" Icy fired an orb of pale blue energy even as Darcy shouted in protest.

"Don't waste your magic on that!" The golden-eyed woman called out a breath too late. With a loud bang, Cobra Commander was turned into a creature resembling a weasel, but still wearing the top half of his uniform.

"Commander?" The Baroness asked timidly, garnering a series of agitated squeaks from the rodent.

"He can't even talk!" Stormy cackled as Darcy pinched the bridge of her nose. With a flick of her hand, the brunette woman's leather outfit vanished, leaving behind her everyday clothing: a purple halter top and matching bell-bottom pants with black shoes.

"Darcy, what are you doing?" Icy frowned, unsure just why the hell her sister witch would de-transform at a time like this.

"I am not going to waste my energy on stupid party tricks when I could be using it to get us home!" Darcy grumbled, stalking out of the area. "If either of you two jackals need me, I'll be studying our spellbooks!" Paying no mind to where she was going or who she passed by in the process, the brunette witch marched out of the restricted area and into the winding corridors of the Terror Dome.

"Why does she have to be such a drag?" Stormy pouted as the Dreadnoks laughed uproariously at the frantic squeaking of Weasel-Cobra-Commander.

"Because she's the brains in this group." Icy grumbled, not liking to admit that the shorter witch had any sort of advantage over her. "And she does have a point; we need to conserve our energies until we know for sure how to get out of this place."

"Perhaps it would be in our best interest if we work together?" Destro spoke up, attracting the attention of the two females.

"How might that be?" Icy raised a silvery eyebrow as the Baroness gaped at her lover.

"Destro, darling, you can't be serious!" The bespectacled woman exclaimed. "They turned the Commander into a weasel!"

"Had it comin' for a while, if you ask me." Zarana snorted. Like her brother Zartan, she was only staying around the Cobra crowd for the money. In truth, the Commander annoyed the crap out of her. "Think we can get her to turn Serpentor into something?"

"How dare you speak of your emperor in such a manner!" Doctor Mindbender demanded, not having noticed that Zartan had left his two siblings and the Dreadnoks alone in the room.

"Because he is not _my_ emperor. He's not even my employer!" The orange-haired assassin stated pointedly. "He is a spoiled brat who thinks the whole world should give him whatever he wants because he commands it. Would do the wanker some good to be turned into a snake for a bit."

"I like her." Stormy remarked off-handedly.

"Can we please get this conversation back on track?" Icy glared at her younger sister-witch, anger barely restrained in her tone of voice. "Why should we let you help us? You're the ones who got us stranded here in the first place!"

"And that is exactly why you should permit us to assist you." Destro responded coolly. "While you no doubt have a wealth of magical knowledge, you do not know how the technology of this dimension works. Since this device is what helped bring you three ladies to our figurative doorstep, it stands to reason that you will need it to get you back to your home, wherever that may be."

"Great. The one time it would be nice to have the techno-pixie around…" Stormy grumbled softly to herself. As much as they despised the Winx Club, that technology fairy would be damned handy to have around right now.

"Doesn't seem as if we have a choice." Icy conceded. "Very well." Although, they would need a lair of sorts, and she had no idea where to start looking for one in this dimension. Pride forbid her from simply asking her new…assistants if they had a space to stay in for a few days.

"There are some unused quarters on the floor directly above us." Destro gestured up to the ceiling. "You may reside there for now."

"Great. Now who's going to tell that to Darcy?" Stormy griped. She often bragged about taking her sisters on in a fight, but she learned at a young age that trying to pick one with an already irritated Darcy was not in her best interest. What the Dark Witch lacked in raw power, she more than made up for in brain power.

"Let her cool off for a while first." Icy waved. "Let's go see what this dump has to offer us…" As she guided her younger 'sister' toward the doors, she lobbed another energy orb over her shoulder. It connected with Cobra Commander, restoring him to his human form as the doors closed behind her.

"Are you sure this is a good idea, Destro?" The Baroness inquired.

"Of course it isn't." Bludd snorted. "Should have shot the lot of them up the minute they got here."

"Forgive me for not wanting to start a fight with three creatures powerful enough to alter an inter-dimensional portal in such a manner." The Scottish arms dealer drawled. "But it is in our best interest to be rid of them, and we will accomplish it much more quickly by working with them rather than against them."

"That WITCH!" Cobra Commander screamed at the doors. "She turned me into a rodent!"

"I think the rodent was an improvement." Zarana grumbled to herself.


	2. Chapter 2

**Yes, yes, I know this chapter is short, but I couldn't find anything else to add to it that wouldn't distract from the plot. Next one will be longer, I promise.  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or locations presented in this work of fanfiction. **

**Of Spells and Serpents**

**2. Growing Up and Growing Apart**

Darcy wandered around the base for some time before locking herself in an unoccupied storage area. True, she was surrounded by boxes of cleaning supplies, but there was just enough light from the single bulb overhead for her to see without draining her magic. Sitting cross-legged on the metal floor, she summoned one of their spell books and began to research trans-dimensional portals. Upon realizing that the book she summoned held no relevant information, she waved it aside and summoned another.

She had gone through four such spell books when she realized she was no longer alone in the storage area. Whoever sneaked past her magical senses was talented because although she was just sensing him now, she suspected he had been watching her for some time. Darkar and Valtor, powerful and experienced though they were, set off her mental alarms once they got within fifteen feet of her person. This fellow was standing no more than five feet away, silently observing her. "I didn't realize non-magical beings enjoyed sneaking up on wanted criminals."

"You are now in a den of wanted terrorists; sneaking comes with the territory." Darcy's brain immediately set to analyzing the voice's owner by the tone he used to speak to her. He was confident, intelligent, masculine, perhaps a _little_ on the cocky side but definitely not stuck up (something that seemed to be a common trait with male criminals in their dimension), and there was something else there too; something she couldn't identify.

"Sounds like I'm in good company, then." She remarked, pretending to focus on her spell book but really listening to this fellow talk. He ventured a step closer to her, and she found some of her magical senses buzzing. Maybe this guy wasn't as non-magical as she first thought?

"Only if you consider childish leaders who blame their failings on others 'good' company. Believe it or not, the rodent your sister transfigured the Commander into was a welcome improvement." The man remarked, the barest hint of an accent present in his voice.

"Oddly enough, Icy tends to be the same way when her plans run amok." The brunette responded, not even bothering to keep pretending to read her book anymore. This conversation intrigued her. "Unfortunately, since she's my sister, there's been no good way to ditch her." And dammit, she wanted a break from the scheming and the temper tantrums every once in a while!

He paused, considering something as he stepped into her field of vision. "You don't have a place of your own?"

The Dark Witch looked up and to her left, finding herself under the amused gaze of the most intriguingly attractive green eyes she'd ever seen. The rest of him wasn't that bad to look at, either. He was tall (compared to her, at least) and well-built—he could probably bench-press any of the silly Specialists if he had the mind to do something like that. He wore dark blue and burgundy body armor—which matched his hair color perfectly—, and had black diamond-shaped markings around his eyes. She wasn't sure if those came from make-up, or if they were caused by something else entirely.

Not that it mattered; he was powerful, attractive, and willing to flirt. She wanted to keep this conversation moving. "I haven't exactly had time to go apartment-hunting. Running from law-enforcement puts a damper on things like that." Shadowhaunt, they hadn't had a home base in months…

"It might please you to know that most of high command officers have their own private bases." He answered. "Although I would advise against following Destro anywhere; the Baroness tends to be rather protective of him."

"What, no offer to sleep in _your_ bed tonight?" She had been expecting that, to be perfectly honest.

"Only if you _want_ there to be an offer." He smirked, clearly confident that he could wait her out.

He wasn't going to win her over that easily. "I don't even know your name." Her golden eyes peeked over the edge of her amber-tinted glasses. "Why would I want to stay at your place?"

"Would knowing my name _really_ change our mind?" Oh, he was good at this game… much better than her past love interests had been.

Okay, so Riven had been _slightly_ brainwashed at the time, but he still wasn't much good with banter. Valtor, though a dashing gentleman, also tended to value his books more than any human relationships and as such wasn't quite as good at spouting off seductive one-liners as most people might think.

"You'll never know if you don't tell me." She shrugged carelessly, turning her attention back to the book in her lap.

"You drive a hard bargain, miss Darcy." He pretended to think it over. "My name is Zartan."

Hmm. An unusual name for an unusual man. "How did you know my name?" She certainly didn't recall telling him _that_ piece of personal information.

"Your sisters were screaming it right after you teleported in." Ah. Yes, that was a good reason. And an even better reason to take some long overdue personal time away from her sisters.

"Sisters tend to do things like that." She couldn't quite keep her agitation out of her voice. He seemed thoroughly amused by that.

"Oh, believe me, I know. My sister tends to behave the same way." Now there was an interesting talking point…

"You have a sister?"

"And a brother, but that's getting a little off the subject."

"Oh, but I happen to like this topic." She mock-pouted. "Do these siblings live with you?"

"We share a private base, but they each have their own private living areas; the same goes for my hired help."

"So you don't share bedrooms?" That took her aback. "I haven't had a room to myself since middle school…" He chuckled softly.

"If you _really _want a room all to yourself, it can be arranged." Zartan offered. "However, if all you want is a roommate who isn't a family member…"

"Let me think on the last offer a while." She remarked, rising to her feet. "But I do think it would be…educational to share a base of operations with you. I just have to tell my sisters that they will have to do without me for the foreseeable future."

"I will have my men prepare a space for you." There was a very pleased gleam in those bright green eyes of his.

Yes, this was going to be a _very_ educational experience

* * *

It didn't take Darcy long to sense her sisters' magical signature. She'd been with the other two for so long that it was almost second nature to reach for them.

Okay, so they weren't sisters in the biological sense. At least, not that she knew of. They had all been raised by the same woman—a member of the Whisperian coven—but Darcy knew she wasn't related by blood to Icy or Stormy. She still wasn't completely sure that the pair weren't somehow related to each other, though. Maybe those two were cousins? She certainly didn't know and had no idea who to ask if she really wanted to solve that mystery (which she most certainly did not, at present).

That in mind, finding one of her sisters didn't take all that much effort.

"Stormy." She called out, catching her younger sister by surprise. "We need to talk."

"Yeah, we do. We need to pick out our rooms here." The shorter witch answered. "Icy managed to work a deal. We stay for free until we go home, or something like that."

Darcy sighed. She felt a little guilty leaving Stormy alone to deal with Icy, but it was past time for the sisters to start developing lives outside of the Coven. They were the last of their bloodline and the avatars of the Ancestral Witches; sooner or later, one of the three of them would have to stop the world domination plots long enough to 'perpetuate the Coven bloodline', as their foster mother once explained it. "I'm not staying here." The brunette told her sister.

"Yeah, right. Look, I know you're angry, but we don't have anywhere else to go." Stormy remarked.

"You may not, but I do. I've been asked to move in with one of the officers. He has a private base somewhere…"

"What?" The poofy-haired woman exclaimed in disbelief. "We haven't even been here a day and you're already trying to get into some stranger's pants!"

"It is not like that! At least not yet; I still don't know much about him yet." The golden-eyed woman ran a hand through her long hair. Hmm. Maybe it was time to get a new haircut? At the very least it would make it _slightly_ more difficult for those pesky fairies to hunt her down. "Dragon, Stormy, we haven't had space to ourselves in over six years. We're adults and its time we start acting like it. If that means we have to live in different houses, so be it."

"How can you think of _leaving_ at a time like this?"

"Don't be so melodramatic; I've been thinking of doing this for a while and simply haven't had a good enough reason."

"And some stranger you just met is a good reason?"

"Yes, he is. I don't care if you don't like it. I don't care if it pisses Icy off. I need my own space to find my identity outside the coven, and this is the perfect chance to do that."

"Darcy…what brought this on?" Stormy tilted her head in confusion, her dark grayish eyes turning a gray-green color as she struggled to get a handle on the emotions flooding her consciousness. "Was it something I did wrong? We were having fun before!"

"We were having fun the first time around; by the fourth it becomes tiring." The older witch stated. "I just need a break for a while. All of this running and fighting and getting our asses handed to us is not what I want to do with the rest of my life."

"…you really mean it, don't you?" A light breeze blew as the younger witch grew more confused. "You're leaving and not coming back."

"I might when I figure things out, but not before." Darcy sighed. "I'll still be researching ways to get us home, and if we one that works, I promise I will get you two back to the magical dimension if you still want to go back… but I don't know that I want to go back yet."

"I…I can't do this right now!" Stormy declared, angrily turning her back toward her sister. "I'm done talking to you!" Her heels clattered violently against the metal floors of the Terror Dome as she left, her sister sighing in exasperation behind her.

It hurt to make her younger sister so confused and upset. She didn't doubt Icy would make her hurt once she found out. But dammit, they weren't hormonal teenagers anymore and it was high time they stopped acting as if they were still in high school.


	3. Chapter 3

**Sorry about the impromptu hiatus, guys. My muses for this story ran off and left me for a while. **

**As a reminder, I claim no ownership to any characters mentioned by name in this work of fanfiction; those belong to Hasbro and Rainbow/Nickelodeon. I also don't make any money from posting this. If I did, I wouldn't have quite as much student loan debt hanging over my shoulders. **

**Of Spells and Serpents**

**3. Friendship Isn't **_**That**_** Kind of Magic…**

Stormy stomped through the hallways of the Terror Dome in an attempt to come to terms with what she'd just been told. Her sister, one of the few people who had always been there for her, was leaving the group and moving in with some guy she'd just met. It didn't sit well with the young witch, who had always thought that the Trix coven would stay together, just the three of them, until they were either old and gray or dead.

An unbidden memory of something their adoptive mother had told them barged its way into the front of her mind.

"_My daughters, you are all strong, but strength alone will not keep the Coven alive." The woman who raised the three Trix witches was a rather homely creature with graying forest-green hair and violet eyes. The three girls under her care never called her anything other than 'mother'. "You must find new blood to recruit and, eventually, perpetuate the coven bloodlines yourselves. As the avatars of the Ancestral Witches, it is your duty to see that our kind does not die out."_

Okay, so maybe they'd been slacking off on the recruiting drive, but what could she do about that now? Earth was a magic-less planet where she came from, and she was under the impression that this one would be just as desolate. She didn't think there was anyone worth converting into the Coven _alive_ on this waterlogged rock.

The smell of fresh coffee and the sounds of people laughing and debating met her ears, causing her to stop in her tracks. Coffee did sound good, and she supposed it wouldn't hurt to investigate what people around this place did during their time off. If they were going to be forced to work together (gag!) then she may as well pretend to be sociable.

She followed her nose into an area that she supposed was the break room/kitchen, judging by the presence of chairs, a table, a sink, and a microwave oven. A group of six large, muscular men and one rather troublesome looking woman were discussing something around the table as she cautiously slipped passed them to get to the coffee pot. She remembered seeing the group loitering around when she and her sisters came through the portal earlier, and they had thought that Icy turning that one masked dude with the weird voice into a rodent was hysterical. That meant they might be worth getting to know, as far as she was concerned. Even if the men did have a distinct odor about them, they seemed like the kind of crowd that just wanted to have fun and tear stuff up (which were two of her favorite hobbies).

"Hey, look who it is!" One of the men looked her direction as she filled a white foam cup up with coffee. He had dark hair, a scruffy beard, and tinted sunglasses covering his eyes. What was at one time an animal-print vest (the bottom had been torn off at some point) covered part of his torso and road-worn jeans kept his legs protected, somewhat.

"If it ain't one o' them witches." A man with a greasy blond ponytail and no facial hair commented as she felt his gaze rake over her body despite not seeing his eyes on account of his mirrored sunglasses.

"Nicest lookin' witch I ever seen." A man in truly horrendous looking red and silver spiked armor spoke up. His black hair had neon green streaks dyed into it.

"Don't even start with her, boys." That warning came from a man with orange hair and lightning-bolt designs painted on his face in red war-paint. He also had a blue headband, pink neckerchief, and dark blue shoulder guards. "She'd probably turn you lot into pond scum faster than her sister turned Cobra Commander into a rodent." If not for the faint smirk on his lips, she would have suspected the man to be pretty damn broody.

"Got that right." Stormy grumbled, glaring at ponytail-man and he-who-must-be-colorblind over the top of her coffee cup.

"Aw. Can't we let her mute Thrasher?" The woman spoke up. If not for the fact that she was running with such a rough crowd, Stormy might have pegged the orange-haired female for a fairy due to the bright pink top she had on.

"You take that back, you bitch!" Ugly-Armor (apparently answering to "Thrasher") stood abruptly, one hand reaching for a gun holstered at his hip.

Orange-haired-and-shirtless beat him to the draw, leveling his weapon between the other man's eyes. "Try it and I will end you."

"I can bloody well take care of myself, thank you much!" The woman growled, taking advantage of Thrasher's reluctance to move and kicking him in the back of his right knee. Stormy smirked; she was definitely enjoying the show.

"Doesn't mean I can't stand up for my sister." Shirtless remarked. Ah, so _that_ was why they had matching dye-jobs. Good to know.

"Ow!" Thrasher grumbled, glaring at the siblings.

"Ah, shaddup." A man with bushy light brown hair and an equally bushy short beard remarked. He wore a brown vest with several odd round objects hanging in a chain across his chest, faded jeans, and armored boots along with aviator-style sunglasses. "You 'ad it comin' this time."

"I did not!"

"Did to. You were practically beggin' for it." Ponytail grumbled.

"Never thought you'd take her side, Buzzer." Thrasher sneered.

"I know damn well when I'm 'bout to get me arse handed to me, an' sayin' what you said'll guarantee it." Buzzer remarked. He apparently wasn't a fan of the lone female in the group.

"Are you sure I can't mute them?" Stormy wrinkled her nose in disgust, nodding her head to the pair of rude men. Her eyes focused on the other woman's. "They sound as bad as they smell."

"Tempting, but no." The woman pursed her lips. "Although if you could conjure up some magic soap to clean them with, the entire base would thank you." Rather than protest, her brother shrugged his shoulders in agreement.

"Might take some time, but I think I can arrange that." A smirk played across Stormy's burgundy-tinted lips. "I'm Stormy."

"Zarana. Nice to meet ya." Zarana smirked back.

"Did she just make nice with the witch?" Dark-hair-in-animal-print gaped.

"Oi, Ripper, I think she did." A redheaded (and bearded) man in a black vest and jeans remarked.

Zarana ignored the both of them. "Would offer you a seat, but I think we're out of chairs." She shrugged.

"Eh, I wasn't planning on staying long enough to need one." The Storm Witch answered honestly. "I'm not looking forward to telling Icy that Darcy's throwing a jinx in her plans, but the longer I wait, the pissier she'll be."

"Darcy's the one that stormed out earlier, right?" Zarana asked, now completely disregarding anything else going on around her. "She find something better to do with her time than get you girls home?"

"Yes, although she didn't tell me what his name was." Stormy made a disgusted face. Romantic relationships had no appeal to her. "I think he's one of the officers, though, since he doesn't live here."

Zarana's brother (whose name Stormy hadn't learned yet) groaned. "So _that's_ why he wanted that spare room cleaned out tonight." The man grumbled. Stormy knit her eyebrows together in confusion.

"Huh?"

"Your sister is apparently moving in with us." Zarana grumbled. "Our older brother, Zartan, apparently decided she's worth seducing."

The name didn't sound odd at all to Stormy, but as she'd learned in the last few years, the magical dimension had some rather 'inventive' given names when compared to Earth or Linphea. "Knowing Darcy, the feeling was mutual. I've never known her to go after someone she didn't want to use…" Aside from a couple of guys she'd met at parties. And, to a certain extent, that Riven dude that ran with the Winx Club. Darcy _had_ really liked him, but when it came to a choice between boyfriend and phenomenal cosmic power, power won out. Stormy wasn't so sure that Darcy would make that decision this time around, given the brunette's outburst earlier.

"In that case, we should be seeing quite a lot of each other until those two get bored." Zarana shrugged, obviously thinking that this relationship wouldn't last very long.

"Yeah, guess so." A rather…foreign feeling came over the youngest Trix witch. She didn't know how to describe it, but she wasn't entirely averse to it either. All she really understood was that she wouldn't mind meeting up with Zarana again. "So, what do people do for fun around here?"

Devious grins formed on the faces of everyone in the room. "How about we show you?" Zarana asked.

Stormy found herself grinning along with them. Whatever they were planning, she was sure it would be a blast.

* * *

The sound of explosions met Icy's ears as she strode outside the base in search of her youngest sister witch. Wherever Darcy ran off to, she didn't want to be found and was hiding her magical signature from her older coven-mate. However, since Darcy wouldn't simply vanish without first informing Stormy, Icy decided to find her baby sister and interrogate her.

She hadn't planned on finding her sister in the middle of a small mob intent on blowing things up. Stormy stood in the middle of a group of six men and one woman. The strange female appeared to be close to the young witch's age. A strange device was hefted over the weather-controlling witch's shoulder, with one of the men holding the other end of it. As Icy got closer, Stormy did…something to the strange tube-like device and a loud bang sounded. While the ice witch covered her ears in pain and shock, a projectile shot out of the device and hit a target in the distance, blowing it to pieces.

"Hey, your keeper's here!" The strange woman called to Stormy, who in turn glanced at her sister witch.

"Icy, this world is awesome!" The curly-haired woman grinned excitedly, leaving the brown-haired man standing behind her to deal with the device in favor of running to meet her sister. "They have these things called grenade launchers and bazookas and they make stuff blow up!" Clearly Stormy was enjoying herself in her sisters' absence.

"Where in Shadowhaunt is Darcy?" Icy growled at her younger sister. "I can't sense her anywhere."

"Oh, yeah…she's gone." Stormy looked far more unconcerned about that fact than she probably should have. "Moving in with her newest boy-toy. But I get a new best friend out of this mess, so I don't really care anymore."

"Gone?" Icy repeated, feeling her hackles rising.

"That's what I just said. Did that bazooka launch leave you half-deaf or something?" Stormy examined her now-ruined manicure, a small sneer on her lips. "She's run off with her new officer-boyfriend."

"And just where did she run off to?" the platinum-haired witch hissed.

"She didn't say; don't think she even knows where she's going." That comment came out more like a growl. "She said she wanted to find a life outside the coven and that we were being childish or something like that. I didn't really pay attention after the whole 'abandon ship' bombshell."

"And you just let her go?!" How could she have been so stupid?

"What was I supposed to do? Forbid her?" Stormy griped. "We're all adults now, Icy. You using the 'I'm the oldest sister' excuse to boss her around will not work as well as it did when we were kids, and you know it. It's not going to work well on me either, for that matter." There was a resolve in the younger girl's eyes that Icy had never seen before. Over the years, Stormy had thrown some wild tantrums, but she had never had the gall to stand up to her oldest sister before. Unlike Darcy, Stormy had been easy to boss around. It seemed that Darcy's rebellious tendencies were starting to wear off on the youngest Trix witch.

"And just what do you mean by that?" Icy challenged, trying to get back control of her coven.

"I mean that I'm not going to let you tell me who I can and can't hang out with anymore." The shorter witch folded her arms across her chest. "Especially since mother wanted us to meet new people and recruit them for the coven. Can't do that if I'm stuck listening to your bitch sessions 24/7, now can I?"

Bitch sessions? She thought they were bitch sessions? How dare she! "Stormy, you have lost your mind!" Icy hissed. "There is no one on this miserable waterlogged rock worth recruiting!"

"You said the same thing about Cloud Tower. And Light Haven, come to think of it. I can't believe I never noticed it before now." Deep gray-green eyes lit up as the youngest Trix witch had an epiphany. "You never wanted Darcy and me to bring new members into the coven, did you? You wanted to keep all the power for yourself!" The wind picked up as the Storm Witch's emotions began to rage beyond her control.

She would never admit it, but Icy felt a tingle of fear race down her spine. So many years and carefully-constructed schemes to keep themselves separated from the rest of the magical dimension were falling down around her. Stormy was right; there were never supposed to be any permanent acolytes in Icy's new and (eventually) improved version of the Whisperian coven. Why would she need any one else to share the glory? Her two sisters were more than enough help, or so she had thought. "We never needed anyone else before!" Icy growled.

"Then what were Valtor and Darkar there for?" the younger witch challenged. "Why let ourselves be used by them if we didn't need them in the first place?" They certainly weren't there for their sex appeal. Darkar was about as attractive as an ogre, and Valtor was permanently stuck in the fashions popular two decades ago.

"I had my reasons." The older woman growled.

"And those reasons repeatedly got our asses handed to us." Stormy frowned. "Why can't we start looking for new followers of our own instead of some creepy old dude to leach power from?" Seriously, why hadn't Darcy tried to push this idea before? Or, had Darcy suggested it but had it shot down? She couldn't remember.

"Because there is nobody here to recruit!"

"How can you know that? We've only been here an hour! We don't know what's different about this version of Earth. This one could have magic!"

"Real magic? Are they off their rockers, mates?" Torch asked.

"You take orders from a family of saboteurs who blend into shadows with a thought." Zarana reminded him. "And there were those freaky psychic kids Cobra tried to use a while back. Anything's possible."

Icy and Stormy suddenly turned their attention to the group of Dreadnoks. "People **actually** have powers on this planet?" Icy asked, disbelief evident in her tone.

"You blend into shadows?" Stormy blinked. The orange-haired woman shrugged.

"Don't often get to make use of it, but I can."

"See? I was right!" Stormy grinned triumphantly. "There _are_ people worth training on this planet!"

"You want to train her?" Icy hissed, pointing a blue-manicured fingernail at the woman in the torn pink shirt. "Are you insane? You're barely in control of yourself!"

"Rather learn from her than you." Zarana grumbled.

"Watch your tongue, brat." Icy growled.

"Make me, bitch." The female Dreadnok countered, her laser-blaster now in hand. "I don't need magic to deal with the likes of you."

"Zarana, just stay out of it." Zandar hissed to his twin.

"What's that puny little gadget going to do against me?" Icy laughed at the other woman's threat.

"Why don't we find out?" Zarana taunted the Cloud Tower drop-out, a confident smirk on her face. "I bet I can get a shot in on you before you can land one on me."

"Please! You're not even worth my time?"

"If she wins, we test her for active magic." Stormy spoke up. She wasn't sure why, but she felt like Zarana might actually stand a chance in a speed match. Although, it might have something to do with the fact that she and her associates could take out the entirety of the Red Fountain specialists without a second thought. "If she loses, we move on and find someone else to work with."

A frustrated groan escaped the ice witch's pale lips. This was turning out to be the worst day in her career as a villain, and it wasn't close to being over yet. But if beating this insolent, powerless human would help her get her younger sister back on track, she would do it. "Very well." She growled as cold magical energy danced at her fingertips. "Say your prayers, fairy wanna-be." She felt the magic coalescing in her open palms, forming into glowing orbs. She brought her hands up in front of her body and launched the two orbs in the other woman's direction.

Icy hadn't counted on Zarana being fast and coordinated enough to dodge the blasts while firing off a shot of her own. The orange-haired woman ducked under the ice witch's energy orbs with a burst speed and grace that neither native of the magical dimension thought she was capable of. Before Icy could launch a second round of attacks, Zarana raised her pistol and shot a stunning round at Icy's hands. The shot found its mark, causing the platinum-haired woman to clutch her right hand as pain shot through that appendage. "Was that all you've got?" The other woman taunted, standing upright once more. Her blaster was still pointed at Icy. "I've faced better from the Joes than you."

"Why you little…"

"Oh, get over it." Stormy spat at her older sister-witch. "It's not like she burned your hair off, like Bloom did that one time." Icy had been grumbling for days about that!

Far from happy with the day's events, Icy snarled and cradled her numb hand with the working one. "How long until this wears off?"

"About an hour." Zarana shrugged. "Not like you were gonna actually accomplish anything today, were you?"

Stormy shrugged as well. The other girl had a point; Darcy had all their best spell books and was nowhere to be found right now. They would have to wait for her to come back tomorrow to make any progress toward their goal of going home. Besides, the curly-haired witch was more concerned with exploring the rest of the compound with the Dreadnoks than listening to Icy gripe about how Darcy screwed things up.

"She won. You lost." The youngest Trix pointed out. "We can test her for magic tomorrow whenever Darcy decides to resurface." She knew nothing about how to perform an active magic test and didn't trust Icy to give her accurate results after how that duel ended. Darcy, by default, was the best person for the job. Her being a neutral party in this mess was a happy bonus. "Why don't you go annoy that big emperor-dude the weird cape guy was talking about?"

Snarling, Icy narrowed her eyes at the other two women. Her hand was still numb, meaning that she couldn't use it to cast spells. She couldn't take on both Stormy and her new friends with only one spell-casting hand. A show of dominance over the impertinent brat would have to wait for another time, preferably when she could set up an appropriate trap. "I hope you know what you've done, Stormy." The eldest Trix hissed as she turned around and walked back into the base.

For the first time in a long time, Stormy knew exactly what she was doing. What surprised her was that she wasn't doing it for her sisters or the 'greater evil', but for herself. And she had met people who shared her penchant for destruction in the process. She had—dare she admit it—made her first real friend today.

That thought left her both excited and terrified. What the hell did she know about that friendship crap? That was something better left to those annoying fairies, or so she had thought. Before today, she didn't think she could ever connect with someone other than her sisters and didn't want to. And now? Now she'd stood up to Icy so that she could stay in contact with a punk biker she barely knew. And she hadn't been scared to do it!

Huh. Maybe there _was_ something to this 'friendship is a powerful magic binder' business the fairy schools had been pushing all these years?

"Well, she didn't look pleased." Zandar commented, watching the blue-clad witch disappear into the Terror Dome. If the ice witch decided to come back for round two, he doubted Zarana would take her out as quickly, if at all. That thought worried him; she was his twin sister and it was his job to look after her.

"She'll get over it eventually. I hope. Either that, or she's going to give herself a stress ulcer." Stormy sighed before remembering what they had been talking about before the bazooka test launch. "Now, what are those 'tank' things you guys kept talking about?"


End file.
